


Cardiac Event

by Cygna_hime



Series: Making (Textual) Amends [1]
Category: Kingdom Hearts
Genre: Kingdom Hearts III Spoilers, Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-19
Updated: 2020-01-19
Packaged: 2021-02-27 07:41:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 787
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22323496
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cygna_hime/pseuds/Cygna_hime
Summary: Sora experiences the consequences of bringing his friends back from the dead.
Relationships: Kairi & Riku & Sora (Kingdom Hearts), Kairi/Riku/Sora (Kingdom Hearts)
Series: Making (Textual) Amends [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1606810
Comments: 5
Kudos: 56





	Cardiac Event

**Author's Note:**

> Part of a series of short pieces designed to turn KH3 into something that I feel like working with. Nomura knows what he did.

“Kingdom Hearts is closing on the other side. But we managed to follow our hearts to you.”

Even as Sora grinned in delight, he felt a pulsing pain in his chest. Something – something was wrong. It felt like his heart was beating too hard, like it was going to burst out of him. He gasped in pain, clutching at his chest where the pain was worst.

“Sora?” Two hands rested on his shoulders, Riku’s on one side and Kairi’s on the other. “Sora, what’s happening?”

“I – I don’t – know,” he gasped. What was this? It hurt, but it also felt good. He could feel his friends all around him. He loved them so much – so much it hurt. But that was just a figure of speech, wasn’t it? Could love feel like this?

Xehanort chuckled. “Did you really think you could use such power without consequence? The World will take its due. Look! It has already begun.”

Sora felt his heart give a great leap, and then – something strange. He felt so cold, and he couldn’t feel Riku’s and Kairi’s hands anymore. But he could still feel their hearts.

“Sora!”

“What’s going on?!”

“It’s okay, it’s okay, I’ve got him!”

He opened his eyes. He was leaning on someone, someone shorter than him – Kairi, it was Kairi, he could see her. But…he couldn’t see himself, or he could, but only just. He looked like one of the shimmering specters he’d absorbed, not quite real, kind of translucent, like glass that breathed. But Kairi’s arms were around him, and where they touched him he felt more solid, more real. He could feel her heartbeat as well as his own.

“Kairi, what -?” Riku sounded like he was panicking. That wasn’t good. Riku shouldn’t be afraid. Sora tried to say so, but it was so hard to talk over the sound of all those hearts.

“I don’t know!” Kairi sounded scared too, and that wasn’t right either. “I can – I can hold him, but it’s like he’s slipping through my fingers. Like before…”

“That power was always a power of sacrifice,” said Xehanort. “To bring you back, he must go in your place. Foolish child, you cannot stop the course of fate, only delay it a while.”

Sora couldn’t see Xehanort anymore: Ven, Terra, and Aqua were all standing in front of him, blocking Xehanort from the rest of them. While everyone else was looking at Sora, they were keeping watch. That was good, probably, Sora thought muzzily. Xehanort was so dangerous. But he’d been defeated now. He couldn’t hurt them anymore. Could he? What if he had some other way – Sora struggled to sit up. He had to – had to be there, in case Xehanort – he wouldn’t touch Sora’s friends, not anymore!

“Sora, no, don’t try to move!” Kairi was holding him so tight, her heart brilliant even against the hearts all around them.

It was Roxas who understood. “It’s okay,” he said firmly. “He can’t hurt us. I won’t let him.”

Sora nodded and let his eyes slip closed. Vision didn’t really matter, anyway, not when he could _feel_ everyone, all those hearts connected to his. It felt like a spiderweb, golden threads glittering all around, tied to him and to each other. They were so strong. Even if he had to fall out of the web, they would hang together.

His heart was beating faster. He didn’t want to go! There was still so much to do, so much time with his friends. But – if this was the price of keeping them all safe, then he was okay with that.

“I’m losing him! Sora, hang on! Stay with me!”

“It’s okay.” If Kairi kept holding on to him too tight, she’d go with him, and he didn’t want that. Moving felt weird, like his body didn’t belong to him anymore, but everyone else it might belong to was outside now, weren’t they? He tried to count, but the numbers slipped away. Still, he managed to move _something_ to pull Kairi’s hands off of him, her heart away from his.

“No! _Sora!_ ”

Then Riku was there, holding on to him and Kairi at the same time, so dark and soft like hiding in a pile of blankets. “Sora, _please-!_ ” He poured power into Sora, but Sora turned it around and sent it back. He didn’t want Riku to go with him either.

“Nooo,” he mumbled aloud. “You…stay.”

“I’ll bring you back,” Riku said desperately. “I’ll find a way, I swear. No matter what it takes.”

“We both will,” said Kairi. Sora could feel her heart crying.

“Good,” he said. He could feel himself unspooling into the gentle night. “Love you.” And then he wasn’t there anymore.

**Author's Note:**

> Not pictured: Kairi singlehandedly bumping the game's rating too Teen or even Mature by swearing at Sora for dropping the "I love you" and then dying.


End file.
